Overlord

Nitpicking about historical exaggerations and inaccuracies while watching Overlord will make it your loss.

This revisionist World War II thriller isn’t meant to withstand such scrutiny as it combines genre tropes into a fresh — and undoubtedly fictional — package with style and attitude to spare.

The story follows a handful of Army paratroopers tasked with going behind enemy lines in France to disable a Nazi communications tower in the overnight hours leading up to the D-Day invasion at Normandy.

The mission goes awry almost immediately. After their plane is shot down, the soldiers become stranded in the town where said tower is embedded in a church. The survivors, including a private (Jovan Adepo) and an explosives expert (Wyatt Russell), encounter a civilian (Mathilde Ollivier) whose distrust of the regime prompts her to help the American outsiders.

Their efforts encounter plenty of Third Reich resistance, in ways both expected and unexpected, turning it into a fight for survival. Without spoiling too much, apparently the Nazis were more advanced in their use of medical experimentation than our history books ever taught us.

As such, the film requires a buy-in to its unique perspective on certain events and characters during the war. Those with a particular sensitivity to such unorthodox interpretations might find it crass and exploitative.

However, those in the proper mindset will appreciate the wit and imagination in the subversive screenplay by Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) and Mark Smith (The Revenant) before it turns more mechanical and the suspense dwindles in the ultraviolent final act.

Australian director Julius Avery (Son of a Gun) brings considerable visual flair to the material, highlighted by a tense opening sequence set aboard, and beneath, a transport plane taking on enemy fire.

Likewise, the actors develop an endearing chemistry beyond the usual tough-guy military bravado. Their focus on the mission is accompanied by a genuine loyalty to one another under the harshest of circumstances. Heroes and villains are clearly delineated.

Mixing elements of horror, action and comedy, Overlord is generally conventional and predictable in its narrative structure, and it lacks any meaningful subtext along the way. But it’s still a bloody good time, as along as students don’t use it to cheat on their history test.

Rated R, 109 minutes.